In the Naval Academy Yard there's a bronze statue of a goat, and the midshipmen traditionally polish up (in the dark of night) only its nuts, making them shine forth prominently from the rest of the statue. I'm surprised some pranksters haven't serviced this statuesque lady similarly.

Victoria:You might be right. My husband really liked the film. I was not able to suspend disbelief because I kept thinking 'Batman is W','There's too much morbid curiosity about Heath Ledger','Gotham is Chicago', and my prior 'Maggie Gyllenhaal has a doughy face and really dark new mom circles under her eyes' the whole time. I was lost in thought and not the director's vision.

Surface and Panel magazine printed an article a few years ago about a company that developed software that would allow a manufacturer to mill undulating surfaces that would mate with other pieces, but not in an obviously repetitive way. Nice software.

I design in Rhino and limit my 3D surfaces to pieces small enough for use in indoor furniture. I mill solid wood on the CNC machine I have had in my home shop for over 10 years now. Who needs Chinese labor when I have a machine that works for even less?

In any case, a surface like the facade of that building catches my eye.

Gregory Ryan Sculptures Slideshow presentation of sculptures by Gregory Ryan. Ryan's work is based on patterns and surfaces found in nature including water, leaves, landscapes and animals. Also includes images of monumental projects such as Harry Winston's Water Wall store facades.

Ryan's works confound the nature of indexical representation. The landscapes are derived from satellite measurements that are radar samples of ranges collected into a digital database. Ryan enters this data into software to achieve a digital 3D model. This data is input to a computer numeric controlled (CNC) milling machine that carves a negative form that is then used to cast the final metal works. Despite all of this mediation the end results read as 3D photographs. All the works in this installation similarly have mimetic patterns and details though they are achieved through very different mediations.

Water Walls" (2003-04) are derived from algorithms--mathematical models of the behavior of liquids in wind. The idea of "casting" liquid water is compelling especially as Ryan makes works that seem to have a nearly photographic specificity, though these waters never existed. These algorithms are again expressed in three-dimensional digital sculpting software. CNC foam is cut using this data, and Ryan then casts the works in aluminum, which is finished to achieve reflections that, like those of water, shift with the viewer's perspective